Baldwin Shark sighting - caught the link to FLCKR on FB

I-Phone photo from August 27th.... 2014! It's not a rumor, lol:

Located in Michigan at the Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad

https://www.flickr.com/photos/70374128@N08/14897847677/

Discuss!
(or, just enjoy a rare glimpse)

If not too trivial for RYPN - let's say they escaped captivity. Say - someone
put up a lot of cash and bought both and asked "YOU" what to do with them?
How would you paint 'em and if you could run 'em, where?

I'd like to see them remain as D&H - maybe have them run at the Sartoga and Northcreek. (Wow).

If static - what would be the most appealing paint scheme and where would you
locate /donate them - as a pair or individual? Without knowing a lot about the
history of the Sharks - I'm picturing one at the B&O Museum as B&O and one at
the National NYC Museum in IN as NYC. RR Museum of PA as NYC might be cool -
did NYC run Sharks in any part of PA? A bonus would be a museum that could
possibly run 'em.

/Mitch

Disclaimer - Word on the street is that a railfan or several did something stupid long ago and they've been kept in lockdown ever since with an owner that has little interest nor patience to discuss their future, let alone offer permission to anyone but a rare few to actually visit.

Interesting photo.

Here's a second photo taken from another angle, showing the other shark (#1216), as well as a tarped/shrink-wrapped heavyweight passenger car (business car?): https://www.flickr.com/photos/70374128@N08/14897719139/

This is the part that is much harder than most readers realize. Too many important diesels have been lost in recent years because there wasn't an active effort made to preserve them.

The latest example was NYSW 240. This was a dual-service RS1 built in April, 1945 at a time when the concept of a road switcher was still a very novel concept. Its last owner had restored it to a NYSW paint scheme and even retained the generator stack.

A photo from earlier this month showing some of these details can be seen here . . . as the scrappers pull it apart:

http://www.tiogapublishing.com/the_wellsboro_mansfield_gazette/news/train-cars-scrapped-in-wellsboro/article_4c86e672-336f-11e4-b5a3-0019bb2963f4.html

This was an important locomotive in showing the evolution of locomotive design and in showing the development of the road-switcher concept.

If an effort couldn't be mounted to preserve NYSW 240 - a significant diesel that was previously restored and located close to many museums and preservation-friendly tourist railroads; I truly wonder whether a credible effort could be made to preserve the Sharks?

Notice the track, I have been told that the building is switched with a couple of Overhead Cranes. The real 0-5-0 switchers.

-Hudson

"Those in the know" have reported to me that the Sharks' long-term fate(s) have already been decided, provided prospective future homes "keep their noses clean", so to speak. And that's not for us to decide. It is the supposed intention of the owner(s) that every piece sitting in [Undisclosed Location] end up preserved long-term, and I see no reason for the moment to envision any Paulsen Spence or Dick Jensen tragic scenario repeating itself.

Ideally--if we're anointing some chosen blowhard like me "benevolent dictator"--the supposedly inoperable one should go to the Railroad Museum of Pa. for a host of reasons. It's one loco that a) was built by a Pa. builder; and b) spent most of its life working for THREE "minority-presence" railroads in Pennsylvania--the NYC, the Monongahela, and the D&H. You could give it a different paint job every ten years and be completely accurate and fit in with the Museum's mission. (And then, while I'm at it, I'll arrange to offer some "dead line" ex-Seaboard RS12's to museums in the South, provided they can demonstrate that they'll give them good homes.)

There's plenty of common-sense reasons not to try and restore one or both Sharks to regular operation--but, heck, there are even more such reasons not to restore an Espee Krauss-Maffei diesel-hydraulic to operation, or try "kitbashing"/rebuilding a BR "Baby Deltic", and both of those projects are moving fast!

If there's one important lesson to be learned from certain past examples we've seen and discussed, it's this: Don't tick off the guy who owns what you covet.

removed

Something else I'll point out just for putting things on the record. In the comments section here's what the photographer has to say:

"Mr. Larkin was very Generous and accommodating!"
"Wish I had my good camera with me! They are in very good condition for their age and still all complete."
"They are in good shape, a little dusty but all complete, engines, cabs, ect!
Like I said, He was totally cool to let me in and take a look around. It was like steping into a time machine."

You mean where the number glass used to be?

Your argument would have traction if there weren't several RS-1s preserved at various museums. I can count at least four or five off the top of my head, including significant early production versions and at least one, very late production example.

Finally, while I agree there are items that need to be saved, when in private, or museum hands, if the owner doesn't want them "saved" then there's not a lot you can do.

Mr. Larkin has amassed a nice private collection. He keeps it indoors, and protected. I really do not think we have to worry about the Sharks.

No sorry. I looked again at a better quality picture and what I thought was a hole is just a spot where the paint wore off and a funny shadow. Sorry for the confusing - I removed my post.

Methinks Mr. Larkin might be enjoying the results of a good tease.

Wesley

Whether he is "enjoying a good tease" or not, he has preserved two very precious pieces from a minority Diesel builder. Keeping them locked up has only made them more "precious" in our community. A group like SMS could, conceivably rebuild the "sharks" to operate again. I would rather see them in a series of paint schemes, changed periodically to a historically accurate former operator of the model. That could include the D&H, since without that road, we likely would have lost them.
Nice catch, on the pictures, by the way.

It's the great thing about private property, it really doesn't matter what you or I think someone should do with it.

It's the great thing about private property, it really doesn't matter what you or I think someone should do with it.[/quote]

Amen to that. Imagine if this equipment was outside on public land?

I suspect it has a great deal to do with one's approach and demeanor.

When I visited years ago, it was not planned. We had heard stories of it being an unfriendly place, but immediately approached the first person we saw, who turned out to be Mr. Larkin. He chatted briefly with us, and offered to take us in to see the sharks (lacking a tripod and wide angle lens, I didn't try for photos). He then said it would be OK to take photos of the equipment outside and when we thanked him afterward, he wished us a safe trip. It was a very pleasant and friendly, though brief, visit.

For a gentleman who has been keeping his locomotives secure in a protected environment, in part due to inappropriate actions by railfans, I think allowing a photographer in as a tease might be a bit unusual. I think it's more likely that something about the visitor suggested he was trustworthy.

At any rate, it's great to see photos of these units again.

Steve Hunter